Street Sprinkling
Although many cities sprinkle their streets for dust laying only, it is agreed by all experts and the heads of most street cleaning departments that the use of sprinkling carts for this purpose is of no value, i. e. it is a temporary makeshift and the result is nil. Sprinkling alone does not clean pavements, but only converts temporarily the fine dust into mud, which is a nuisance. It is quite generally agreed, too, that sprinkling is responsible for much repair work on pavements.
The number of times a street is sprinkled daily depends upon weather conditions, nature of pavement and location, and rarely exceeds four trips. Where flushing and squeegeeing are done sprinkling is eliminated entirely.
In Providence, Rhode Island, bituminous pavements are not sprinkled by water. They are kept clean by patrol system and reasonably free from dust. It is the belief of officials of that city that the use of water has an injurious effect on the pavement.
George D. Warren, of Boston, an expert on paving, says that street sprinkling as it is generally practised is worse than a useless expense. He points to the fact that there has been no sprinkling in Providence in seven years on all kinds of pavement, except that water bound pavement is occasionally sprinkled with oil or oil emulsion. If bituminous pavement surfaces are dry and clean the oil which drips from automobiles is quickly spread by auto tires to an extremely thin sheet, which not only preserves the pavement, but the slight amount of oil takes up the fine dust and materially helps to prevent the surface from even becoming dusty.
Mr. Warren believes that while some forms of pavement are doubtless more affected by water and mud than others, sprinkling injuriously affects all classes of pavement. Continuing he says: “I believe that repairs required to all classes of pavement are more generally the result of wetting down the dirt, leaving the surface in a more or less muddy condition than by traffic, or rather what would be traffic under dry cleaning conditions. A city or street in or on which sprinkling or other methods of continual wetting of pavement surface has not been practised is almost usually one where the pavements are the best of their kind. Washington has the enviable reputation of having the most durable pavement of all kinds. For many years the system of cleaning there has been hand patrol without sprinkling, except a very light sprinkling, just enough to lay the dust, not to convert it into mud—immediately in advance of night sweeping.
“Fifth Avenue, New York, is always dry except during rains, and we find one of the most durable asphalt pavements in the world. The pavement is always clean and never dusty.
“Asphalt pavement on Alexander Street, Rochester, New York, laid in 1885, is still in existence and has a record for low cost of repairs, and has until quite recently been free from street sprinkling. It is now rapidly deteriorating.
“Rutger Street, in Utica, New York, laid in 1886, has been through a similar experience of no sprinkling. Michigan Boulevard in Chicago, from Jackson Boulevard to 10th Street, was paved partly with creosoted wood block and partly with asphalt. It was always in a dry condition and carried very heavy traffic for ten years and was in a good condition until about four years ago when it was removed on account of widening the street. The bituminous pavement on Michigan Boulevard is always clean and never cleaned or sprinkled other than by patrol cleaning, except as to narrow strips about four feet wide which are sprinkled and hand broomed at night to remove the slight dust which collects near the curb.”
The Bureau of Municipal Research of Milwaukee reports that in that city 298 miles of street are sprinkled at a cost of $60,310.05. Of this amount $55,104.77 is assessable.